Waffle wars: Fast-food chains vie to win the morning

White Castle, Taco Bell seek to scramble McDonald’s balance sheets

First Taco Bell
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scored a critical hit with its cheeky advertisement last week for its new Waffle Taco breakfast by enlisting endorsements from real-life Ronald McDonalds (who are no relation to the guy with the red hair and floppy shoes). Then McDonald’s quickly offered free coffee at breakfast for two weeks. And, on Monday, White Castle updated its Facebook page: “Most Wanted Waffles: Coming Soon.” (The breakfast waffles will be available at participating locations.) But experts say that behind the joke there’s a serious reason the fast-food chains are having a food fight: As far as our appetites are concerned, it’s always morning in America.

Taco Bell

Breakfast menus are the only growth area on fast-food and casual dining menus, says Julia Gallo-Torres, U.S. food service category manager at research firm Mintel. Breakfast sales rose over 5% to $27.4 billion last year at quick-service and fast-casual restaurants, according to Mintel’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data. What’s more, sales of breakfast meat and eggs — the key ingredients in the Waffle Taco, McDonald’s egg-and-bacon McMuffins and White Castle’s “Most Waffles” — rose 300% from 2010 to 2013, more than any other breakfast item. “These restaurants are all right on target,” Gallo-Torres says.

Among the other high margin (and increasingly popular) items: oatmeal. “It’s has been around forever and a day,” Solochek says, “but many people don’t want to wake up any earlier than they do and cook it.” McDonald’s, Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, Caribou Coffee, Jamba Juice and Fresh & Co. all serve morning oatmeal. Jamba Juice even offered $1 bowls of oatmeal at participating stores in California, New York and D.C. every Wednesday from Jan. 1 to March 27. (For comparison, a 42-ounce box of Quaker Oats with 30-plus servings costs $3.98 on Walmart.com.)

Despite being such a high-margin item, oatmeal can at least claim to be somewhat healthier than menu items like Taco Bell’s Waffle Taco. A bowl of McDonald’s fruit and maple oatmeal with brown sugar has 290 calories, 5 grams of protein, 4 grams of fat, 58 grams of carbohydrates and 160 milligrams of sodium. A Waffle Taco with sausage has 370 calories, 23 grams of fat, 115 milligrams of cholesterol, 28 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 8 grams of sugar and 12 grams of protein — and 550 milligram of sodium.

In the breakfast wars, however, Taco Bell’s brazen television commercial—which features two dozen real-life Ronald McDonalds — might end up stirring up its golden-arch rival, according to Robert Passikoff, founder and president of marketing consultant Brand Keys. McDonald’s had indeed already responded: “We’ve consulted with Mayor McCheese and he has confirmed that Ronald McDonald, in fact, still only chooses McDonald’s.”

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